The Canadian Jewish News, Friday, February 13,1976 - Page 7
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TOBA KORENBLUM GIN Staff Reporter
When Lillian Kaplun, best-selling cookbook authoress, teacher and undisputed e x p'e r t in tofte-tdpping wizardry, first began exjperimenta-tion in the art of baking at age nine, the results were a dismal failure.
"Throwing the cake out was simply unheard of in those days of frugality,'' she writes in the foreword of For the Love of BajUng. So she served up the desert to a neighborhood boy, Barney, and the remains to a pef collie. Barney's iron-cast stomach suffered no ill effects, but the dog lay sick for three days.
Undaunted by her first experience, she continued her research — ultimately producing tWo^books-(For the Love of Cooking, the second) which have^ sold over 20,000 copies, a^best-seller by Canadian standards; conducting one of Toronto's first classes to instruct three generations of local women in the culinary arts; creating thousand* of famous Kaplun tort^ of her own devising — mouthwatering mqcha, mandarin, apricotf.and chocolate velvet. |
The casual visiter to Lilliah Kaplun's ^mall apartment is likely io find more than a half/dozen chiffon cakes cooEnjg on the dining room taole and
on a speciajly constructed rack. - .
~ Mrs. Kaplun works in a compact, efficiently organized kitchen- with appliances that have served her well over jhe past decades. In a methodically - precise . manner, a spatula in hand, she blende a torte topping.
Dressed in a spritely red gingham dressing gown she' seenis the embodiment of Molly Goldberg — a short fashioiiable haircut, effervescent natural smile, bright brown eyes and cherubic cheeks --.the mom in 'mom and apple pie.'
Biit baking is more than 'woman's work' to her, she explains. "The situa-
tion is sad for a lot of my peers," she says. "I am happy that I have work to do. I came from a generation when only the man worked. While I first worked out of nece^sityr-1 am now learning as I look back on my experience that it is good women can do things on their own. I really think everyone should be resiwhsible for themselves."
Her first professional entry into the field was somewhat of a fiasco, she admits. Spurred by the increasing demand for her home-baked yeast buns, while a young housewife in Vancouver, she decided to distribute them to coffee shops.
Her small' apartment was filled with yeast buns, she describes, covering eveiy available space — on tables, under beds, in cupboards. Almost in selfrdefence, her husband bought her_ an old bakery complete" with large black gas oven< "I was a.great dreamer," she smiles. "1 saw bun factories coast to coast. I'm not so much a dreamer now. I thought 1 would never bake another yeast bun in my life." After two years and a mushrooming operation .with six employees, she' closed shop.
Back in Toronto she began her private baking and, shortly after, teach-' ing. Her tortes sold for $4.50 some 20 yeairs ago when sugar was under 10 cents a pound. During peak years she could whip up 75 tortes a week, never soliciting customers yet ^ finditig a steady stream. Now she limits herself to around 10 and sells them
at $14 each. Sucl^ tortes would claim $25 m New York, she insists.
She looks on baking as an art.^While the constant repetition of churning out tortes cian make her work dull at times, she stilL considers it creative. All of her famous tortes are the result of experimentation; she never follows a recipe exactly. "I take an idea," she explains, ' 'look at the recipe and start working, twisting it around to my liking.
Like any art, she encourages her students to start right from scratch, familiarizing themselves with the equipment, with technique, with the ingredient materials ■—the success to any creative process is the practice. ■ Baking, Mrs. Kaplun maintains, is^ good therapy and an ideal communal link between generations. Many of her students include husband-wife and. mother-daughter teams. She herself has instructed both her son and daughter and they are carrying on the family tradition with her grandchildren who show a keen desire.
Over the years she has been a resurgent interest in baking — especially teenagers and men. To what does she attribute this phenomenon? People are shying away from prepared mixes and bland, mass-produced goods, she explains.
Surprisingly, she has no library of cookbooks, rarely bakes for herself and her husband and insists others should bake in moderation. "I have a sweet tooth myself." she confides. "I just have to keep away from it."
Lillian Kaplun torf one of her famous tortes. Author of the best-selling "For the Love of BakiS," she h^s been experimenting with baking since the age of nine: She claims Bking is ideal communal link between generations. (Groskind)
Sally Priesand to speak here
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Three top rttsonalities will participp in the Federation^pf Jewish Women's pganizatipn's annual coiference of women, w^ch will be held on N»nday, March 1st at Bet/Tzedec Synagogue, Tlfe topic for"this year's coherence is "The Jewish connection...Part II." Th! all-day session, which legihs at 9:30 a.m. and eids at 3 p;m., was orgailzed under" the. chaimanship of Mrs. RuthBass.
lie three featured spdikers are Rabbi Sally I^sand and the husband aid wife team of Dr. Smuel D. Stellman and |landy Stellman, socio-'
logist and attorney respectively.
Prof; Stellman is director of the Extension Centre for Social Services at. the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Mrs. Stellmian is a practicing attorney and a widely-respected marriage and divorce counsellor. They will participate in the morning portion of the conference and deal" with the role of the "new woman" in Jewish society in a dialogue between husband and wife. The Stellmaris are f o r m e r Torontonians and University of Toronto graduates.. As acknowledged authorities on the american family, Dr. and Mrs.
Stellman are in great demand on the U.S.. lecture circuit..
Highlighting the after noon program will be Rabbi Sally Priesand of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue of New York. Rabbi Priesand garnered a great deal of publicity, both pro and con, when she was ordained. She is young, bright and vrill speak of her own experiences, which she discusses in her recently published book, Judaism and the New Woman. ,.
Luncheon and registration is $5. For further information the; number to call is 869-3811, local 265.
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